This detailed philippic against the John Major government’s handling of the collapse of Yugoslavia spares only Lady Thatcher and Major General Sir Rupert Smith: the former for resolutely advocating lifting the arms blockade against Bosnia and striking the Serbs and the latter for helping to carry that out. Messrs Major, Carrington, Hurd Rifkind, Owen and General Sir Michael Rose are criticised with severity.
Mixed verdicts are pronounced on numerous journalists, senior diplomats and the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, depending on their degree of enlightenment at different periods in relation to ‘lift and strike’.